Virus-induced Transient Bone Marrow Aplasia: Major Role of Interferon-α/β during Acute Infection with the Noncytopathic Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus

The hematologic consequences of infection with the noncytopathic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) were studied in wild-type mice with inherent variations in their interferon (IFN)-α/β responder ability and in mutant mice lacking α/β (IFN-α/β R(0/0)) or γ IFN (IFN-γ R(0/0)) receptors. During the first week of infection, wild type mice demonstrated a transient pancytopenia. Within a given genetic background, the extent of the blood cell abnormalities did not correlate with the virulence of the LCMV isolate but variations were detected between different mouse strains; they were found to depend on their IFN-α/β responder phenotype. Whereas IFN-γ R(0/0) mice were comparable to wild-type mice, IFN-α/β R(0/0) mice exhibited unchanged peripheral blood values during acute LCMV infection. In parallel, the bone marrow (BM) cellularity, the pluripotential and committed progenitor compartments were up to 30-fold reduced in wild type and IFN-γ R(0/0), but remained unchanged in IFN-α/β R(0/0) mice. Viral titers in BM 3 d after LCMV infection were similar in these mice, but antigen localization was different. Viral antigen was predominantly confined to stromal BM in normal mice and IFN-γ R(0/0) knockouts, whereas, in IFN-α/β R(0/0) mice, LCMV was detected in >90% of megakaryocytes and 10–15% of myeloid precursors, but not in erythroblasts. Although IFN-α/β efficiently prevented viral replication in potentially susceptible hematopoietic cells, even in overwhelming LCMV infection, unlimited virus multiplication in platelet and myeloid precursors in IFN-α/β R(0/0) mice did not interfere with the number of circulating blood cells. Natural killer (NK) cell expansion and activity in the BM was comparable on day 3 after infection in mutant and control mice. Adaptive immune responses did not play a major role because comparable kinetics of LCMV-induced pancytopenia and transient depletion of the pluripotential and committed progenitor compartments were observed in CD8(0/0) and CD4(0/0) mice, in mice depleted of NK cells, in lpr mice, and in perforin-deficient (P(0/0)) mice lacking lytic NK cells. Thus, the reversible depression of hematopoiesis during early LCMV infection was not mediated by LCMV-WE–specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte, cytolysis, or secreted IFN-γ from virally induced NK cells but was a direct effect of IFN-α/β.